I’ve just got my first award… I know there a quite a few different ones out there and I don’t know what they mean. But it is very nice to find out that someone finds your musings interesting enough to bestow you with an award, even though it is sort of a modern day chain letter. Can you remember these chain letters? They always scared you, you will get the plague or something similarly undesirable if you don’t pass them on. I never passed them on, because I was curious about what will happen… But I am digressing….

When I met the senior citizens last week, an elderly gentleman asked me whether I make the puppets first and then invent their character traits, or whether I conceive their story first and then make up the faces.

It goes both ways. With Chance for example, I accidentally pushed her face in when she hadn’t dried properly. I looked at her, and not wanting to throw work out, decided she must become Chance, the weird ol’ bird. I strongly believe in every mishap lies something good.

At the moment I am working on a new character and in this case I have the complete story and will make the puppet (hopefully this weekend). The puppet is called Mrs Blished, the Fairy Godmother. In lieu of a photograph, here is a very rough draft. And, yes, her eyes look suspiciously like the ones of my blind cat.

Okay, Mrs Blished is the only one who insists on being addressed as Mrs, but we all know her first name is Esta. Hard to believe she was young once and rebellious (it’s amazing what you find out when you visit a rest home). Now she lives by a very rigid set of rules and keeps herself busy protecting her assets, while her wand collects dust in the attic.

Her rule thing would be okay if she needed it for her comfort. Unfortunately she expects everybody else to adhere to the same rule set. I might be a bit naive, but our opinions differ a lot lately.

Recently the Dedes and I had an outing to meet some senior citizens. A friend of mine runs a social morning and we were invited to come along. The puppets were in fine form and behaved themselves (as long as I had them under control). Some of them became a bit cheeky when they mingled with the folks. They are brilliant performers and were quite a hit. I thoroughly enjoy watching people engage with them.

I have to set a record straight: Chance is not Lady Fortune. Chance is a dear friend of mine, but I am not acquainted to Lady Fortune. Apologies… this is not entirely correct: I knew her way back at school, when she still was Miss Fortune. I haven’t kept in touch with her. Why should I, I couldn’t stand her then and I wasn’t the only one wary of her, nobody liked her. She, on the other hand, was attracted to a few of us and followed us around like a bad smell. We just couldn’t shake her off. Only when we left school our path parted.

Thinking back now, she must have been very lonely. She was an only child and inherited the title and a lot of money when her father died. Devil says he meets her from time to time at the pokies, and the punters there, really love to see her. It’s a bit sad, isn’t it? But I won’t go there.

I am pretty sure I saw Chance zipping past me when I left the shops yesterday. I only got a brief glimpse of her. Oh, I so wished I hadn’t fluffed around with Minor and Detail for that long… Chance is a difficult one to get hold of. Her father was a gipsy and she has no fixed abode (and would you believe it? She doesn’t even own a mobile).

I consider her one of my best friends, even though we hardly see each other at times. When we meet again, we just continue where we left off last time as if we had only seen each other the other day. I would have loved to have talked to her yesterday. She is such a positive little thing!

At the greengrocer’s I bumped into Detail and her daughter Minor. These two never fail to amaze me. Detail is such a petite thing, always neatly dressed and every strand of hair in the right place. She looks like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine, even if she only pops down the driveway to the letterbox. Minor on the other hand is a little cloddish, with her worn out sneakers and baggy jumpers. I thought she is only fourteen, but Detail corrected me, Minor is three month short of seventeen. She is much larger and taller than her mother and even though she stoops, her mother still has to look up to her.

Of course Detail wanted to know what Devil said to me the other day. It felt like I was at the inquisition. The three of us were standing in the middle of the aisle at the busiest time at the grocery shop. Don’t you hate these people? I felt very awkward, but she insisted on hearing the entire story and just wouldn’t let me go. I would have liked to side with Minor on that one: “Wha’ ever”

No need to ask Detail for her opinion on anything, she always wants to have more info before she can make up her mind.

I’ve heard the weather is going to pack in. Therefore I’ve spent the morning recording puppet shows. We take them outside on the deck. I like the light there in the morning. First we had to wait for the fog to lift, by the time it was gone, the entire neighbourhood was out and about and hammering away or mowing the lawns. I always deemed our neighbourhood extremely quiet, but gee, Saturday morning every man and his dog has some business outside. The birds were chirping away as well (I love the song of the tuis) and then Mr Whippy must have done a roaring trade in ice cream, his “Greensleeves” jingle went on like forever. I thought summer is well and truly over, obviously not for Mr Whippyyyyyyy.

Anyway, I think I have some snippets I can work with and it will give me something to do, should it rain tomorrow. We recorded Devil and Mouse, when Devil tells Mouse that Hermit has written a book. In the timeline it sits before the other film, where Mouse tells Pirate. But I thought Pirate’s response was a lovely snappy one, so I recorded it first. The conversation between Devil and Mouse is a little bit longer. But finally, Devil got his wish, he is now going to be in a film as well…

On my way home last night I tried to figure out who I could talk to regarding Devil’s complaint from the day before. Believe me, I know my puppets well and I know what they are going to say. Chance would say: “Go for it”. Pirate would say “Whatever brings in the most dosh”. Mouse is ruled out as everybody would know I have a problem straight away…. I don’t particularly like that.

Anyway when I arrived home, Bad Conscience was already sitting on my couch. He must have let himself in with the key hidden under the planter box. Of all the puppets, Mouse aside, he is the worst to try and discuss issues with. You go round and round in little circles and never get anywhere. Maybe his blurry eyes prevent him from seeing things clearly. Ah well, we spent an evening in silence regurgitating old issues.

Last night Devil paid me a visit. He wanted to talk to me as the spokesperson of the dede puppets. They are all very concerned. I didn’t know the dede puppets had a spokesperson. Honestly I don’t think he was voted in. But he obviously thinks he is the Patron Saint of the dede puppets, as he is the oldest. (Patron Saint… it’s a bit rich isn’t it?)

Anyway, he said they are all concerned about where the dede puppet blog is going. He reminded me I had promised to set it up for the dedes as a forum. He, Devil, now accuses me of hijacking it for my other artwork. He actually said, “What’s so beautiful about a Giant Weta, all the dede puppets have nicer eyes…” He quoted the one post where I said it is all about eyes at the moment.

Okay, point taken. Devil himself has gorgeous eyes… I still think (and I am not being defensive here) there should be a place for other photographs on the blog.

So, we had this long and heated discussion about whether I should be allowed to put other artwork up. In the end I had this feeling he was mainly miffed with me because the film features Pirate and Mouse. He insisted it was him who broke the news of the book to Mouse, so he should have been in the film. I promised him he will be in the next one. (We are moving towards winter and I will have more time to do this kind of stuff). I basically made this promise to get him off my back. It was past midnight when he finally disappeared.

It took more than an hour to get the smell of sulpher out of the house. This is the reason, why I normally like to catch up with Devil at the pub.

I think I will canvas the other dede puppets about what they think on the subject. I am still not sure whether he made a mountain out of a mole hill.

Here is something that looked at me from my washing, when I picked it from the line. It is the biggest insect we have in New Zealand, a Giant Weta. At the first glance, one couldn’t call it a pretty creature (needless to say, I dropped the towel, but the Weta held onto it). Looking at it in a photograph so close up, I find it absolutely amazing and it is totally harmless. It’s always worth having a second look.